I choose you, Ryu
by Ishmael1
Summary: An exercise in poor taste.


The following is a parody. Capcom owns the copyright and trademark on a majority of the characters in this fic.  
  
Ryu materialized in a beam of light. The former street fighter pulled himself to his feet and looked at his surrounding. He was standing in the middle of an empty highway that ran along the edge of a city he didn't recognize. The city was silent, empty, and showed signs that a fire had swept through it recently. It had only been a bit more than six weeks since the world began to fall apart and Ryu doubted it would last another month. On either side of Ryu two massive shadowy figures loomed. Their undefined, vaguely human bodies appeared to be made entirely of smoke except for their shining yellow eyes, eyes that were focused on Ryu.  
  
It hadn't always been like this. Only recently Ryu had been living his life with the ideal of constantly trying to become a better fighter. It was a lonely, solitary way of life and it suited Ryu; even though he never would actually admit it, Ryu often viewed the world around him as nothing more than something that he could test himself against. But even with Ryu's self-imposed isolation he couldn't ignore the arrival of the shadows.  
  
One day, for reasons no one could explain, giant beings that were somewhat shaped like a man appeared all over the world. Attempts to contact the figures were futile. For the first few days that they were in the world the shadows seemed unaware of anything around them and instead floated in a seemingly aimless manner. At the time theories were given that the shadows were everything from aliens to the spirits of the dead but while most people had their own ideas about the giants their first action caught everyone by surprise.  
  
Exactly one hundred hours after they first appeared the giants stopped moving and stared up into the air. The sky all over the world shifted to a dark red as streaks of electricity shot through the air in a brief show of the power the shadows had. When the storm cleared sheet music for stage musicals fell from the air around each of the giants. It seemed the shadows were interested in humanity in some strange way after all, but the importance of the sheet music wasn't fully realized until the shadows acted again. Against their will people began to act out musical numbers. The whole idea would have been absurd until it was realized the people who became enchanted by the shadows would not stop. The initial foolishness of the phenomenon turned ugly as the ensnared people kept singing after their voices only came out as a choked gurgle and continued to dance until they collapsed. In America the entire population of Oklahoma performed songs from the musical bearing the state's name until they died of exhaustion. Most of Beijing by was leveled by the Chinese military in a futile attempt to destroy the shadows. The loss of civilian life was high but it was considered a necessary risk since a third of the city's population had already died from a marathon rendition of a medley of songs from "The King and I." People began to run in a blind panic at even the rumor that one of the ghost men was coming into the area. Two dozen people died in London from dancing when one of the shadows suddenly appeared in the city but nearly a thousand were killed in the stampede to get away from the specter.  
  
Nobody knew what drove the shadows to torment humanity. While the shadows stared at the spectacles with their unblinking yellow eyes it was impossible to tell what they thought. As quickly as their obsessions with musicals came, it stopped. The sky flashed red again and toys rained from the sky. When Ryu came across a stream of them falling to the ground he wasn't sure what they were. He had seen children at fighting tournaments discussing the toys all over the world so he knew they were popular but he didn't know anything about them or what the shadows intended to do with them.  
  
After being captured by one of the shadows Ryu found out the hard way. People, animals, and a few things Ryu had never seen on Earth were stored inside balls the shadows had taken to carrying. When one shadow came upon another they would both release a being from one of the balls and expect them to fight. Ryu had spent his whole life being a fighter and found the idea of what he had to do sickening. He was no longer fighting for himself but was instead an animal on a leash that was expected to fight and die for his master's personal glory. The game that the shadows were fascinated with seemed as heartless as training dogs or roosters to fight. Was the children's game this vicious?  
  
Ryu spun his arm in an attempt to relieve the stiffness in his shoulder. Although the time he was sequestered in the ball slowly healed any injuries he might get he still hadn't fully recovered from the slash across his back he had suffered while fighting what he thought had once been a dog but had been mutated by the "training" it had received from the shadows until it was a grotesque mass of muscles. Although Ryu hated fighting the civilians that the ghostly figures occasionally pitted him against they at least he could win a fight against them before either of them could be seriously hurt. The shadows didn't try to force him to fight the same way that some of his opponents were obviously being mentally coerced. Ryu didn't like the idea that he was consciously entertaining his captors but he figured as long as he still had his mind he could escape if an opportunity presented itself.  
  
A beam of light came from the ball of the shadow across from Ryu. His next opponent, a young girl dressed in a ragged school uniform, materialized. She pulled a stringy mass of bleached curls out of her face as she surveyed her surroundings until she finally locked eyes with Ryu. During his years of fighting Ryu had seen the look in the eyes of the girl before. It was the same expression he had seen on fighters who were dangerously insane, who lived only for the chaos they could cause. But while he expected to see those sort of eyes peering out at him from behind the mask a clawed madman was wearing he never expected to see it in the face of a young woman. Her capture by the shadows had apparently been too much for her to handle.  
  
"I... know you," the girl said as she looked at Ryu. "You're the fighter that Kasugano used to trail after like a puppy, aren't you? Finally, they're sending me someone worth my time! I deliberately killed the last few opponents I had to send the message that I wasn't getting enough of a challenge," she said as she began to circle to Ryu's left. "If they're sending me out against a known fighter like you I must finally be on my way to the top. Imagine where I'll go once I kill you." The girl broke into a wide, mad grin. "Even if the world goes to hell the Kanzuki clan will always remain on top."  
  
Karin lunged at Ryu with a punch but Ryu slid around it until he was behind her back, clenched one arm around her neck, and braced it with his other hand. The girl scrabbled frantically to get out of Ryu's sleeper hold, her years of training neglected in her panic. Her struggles only depleted her air supply faster, causing Karin to slump unconscious in  
  
Ryu's arms in less than a minute. Ryu had built his reputation on his striking attacks but he had gotten a lot of practice recently with taking down people in ways that did as little permanent damage as possible.  
  
The stunned girl groaned slightly as Ryu placed her on the ground. He recognized her as Karin Kanzuki -a somewhat spoiled girl who tried to prove her place in the world by street fighting- whom he met when he fought her at a fighting tournament a few years back. He remembered her being a much better fighter when they previously fought; it seemed that most of her martial arts skill had been lost along with her reason. Instead of being pulled back into their pods like had become the routine after Ryu won a match the air became charged with energy as if a storm was going to start. Ryu looked up at the shadows and saw them staring up at the sky, which was thickening into a red hue. Realizing this was his chance to escape, Ryu began to sprint away from the inhuman pair. Items began to pour down from the sky, one of which became twisted around Ryu's legs causing him to crash onto the pavement. A cloudy hand came down in front of Ryu, blocking him in. The first chance Ryu had seen for freedom but blind, fickle luck had stopped him.  
  
What part of human culture had the monsters become obsessed with now? What sort of tricks would he be expected to perform? Ryu didn't know but he was determined to not to let the shadows win. No matter what he was forced to do, Ryu swore to himself that he would endure it until he found a way to escape. When Ryu kicked himself free of the object that had tripped him he discovered that it was an empty inflatable doll. Pornographic videos, magazines and other adult paraphernalia now littered the ground. The two shadows stared down intently at Ryu and Karin, waiting to see what would unfold. Ryu could feel the minds of the shadows pressing in on his, urging him forward. If he didn't respond soon he knew they would take control. Karin, who had regained consciousness, saw the items on the ground and grinned her mad smile at Ryu. "Now that the rules have changed do you think you're going to win this re-match?" she said. Remembering his promise to himself Ryu steeled his nerves for what was to come and headed back onto the battlefield. 


End file.
